Best cruise to visit the islants in Hawaii

I am planning a trip in March 2009 and I am reading a lot of negative reviews about POA. Is POA really that bad? I am from south Florida and planned to fly to Hawaii and take the NCL POA cruise.

NCL was the only cruiseline that started debark and embark in Hawaii.

I am planning a trip in March 2009 and I am reading a lot of negative reviews about POA. Is POA really that bad? I am from south Florida and planned to fly to Hawaii and take the NCL POA cruise.

 

NCL was the only cruiseline that started debark and embark in Hawaii.

The POA is not nearly as bad as some would have you think. It was completely refurbished in 2016. As it is the only cruise ship which is flagged in the USA and sails under US regulations, it is required to have a mostly American crew. We have always found the service to be acceptable, about what you'd experience here in the states. No bowing and scraping.

Sailing roundtrip from Honolulu, it allows you to extend your trip a few days pre or post cruise to experience Waikiki and the beauty of O'ahu. You get 2 days in Maui and 2 days in Kauai ( overnights ), as well as two port days on the big island of Hawaii. I don't think you will find another cruise line which gives you as much time afoot in the islands. There are lots of activities, nice shows in the theatre and lounges, dance parties, and music performers throughout the ship, IF you have the energy after a full day ashore.

You can definately enhance your experience by adding a 3 or 4 night dining package for the 5 specialty restaurants. Only about $25 or so per meal for any of them.

Correction March 2019

Thank you. I am researching what we should do now and boy it's overwhelming.

I am going to chose the free night package with NCL.. so I will have to pay for the specialty dinners separate.

I am planning a trip in March 2009 and I am reading a lot of negative reviews about POA. Is POA really that bad? I am from south Florida and planned to fly to Hawaii and take the NCL POA cruise.

 

NCL was the only cruiseline that started debark and embark in Hawaii.

I am so confused by this thread.

A planned trip in 2009 from someone who joined in 2011 and posted in 2017. Did you mean 2019?

I've never done the POA trip, mostly because of bad reviews but have sailed from San Diego to all the islands and back and from LA to all the islands and back and it was great.

It was HAL out of SD and Princess out of San Pedro.

We just got back from POA and would recommend as a great way to see many islands. We also stayed in Waikiki for 3 days prior and 1 day after. The POA is a good ship, we didn't have any service issues, our stateroom attendant was great. I did think the food was not that good even in the specialty restaurants, except teppanyaki was excellent.

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I would read reviews on the cruise review board.

You cold look at other cruises such as 12 to 14 days R/T cruises out of California.

Keith

We just got off the POA. Previously we sailed Carnival 3 times and Disney once. While POA was the least favourite ship of our, it is not that bad. The few things that we liked better than Carnival are the fast boarding times (pretty much walked on at noon with no zone cards), the organization of photos in binders for each room, and the location. To be honest, we took this cruise for the location not the ship. It's the only ship, that I know of, that doesn't spend 3 days at sea travelling to or from the mainland. This gives you more time on the islands. 2 of the stops (Maui and Kauai) are overnight stops which gives you so much more flexibility in having late nights out in port. 4 Islands, 6 Port days in 1 week in Hawaii was fantastic. We used the ship as a place to sleep and eat. The food was average, but service was good and the ship was clean. It's also not super large so there were hardly any wait times for anything and the pool / hot tubs were never crowded. I would also recommend extending the stay a day or 2 ahead or after to tour Oahu.

One last recommendation is to stay away from the expensive shore excursions. Instead, rent a car on each island through https://www.discounthawaiicarrental.com and download the Shaka Guides app (iOS or Android - https://www.shakaguide.com/). You will get to see way more of the island on your terms at a fraction of the cost. ($30 for a car and $5 for the app per day vs $150 per person per excursion). We did this on every island and it was like having a personal tour guide. It took us to remote spots only the locals would know, all while providing commentary, driving directions, stories of Hawaiian History / culture / legends, and playing Hawaiian music.

I am planning a trip in March 2009 and I am reading a lot of negative reviews about POA. Is POA really that bad? I am from south Florida and planned to fly to Hawaii and take the NCL POA cruise.

 

 

 

NCL was the only cruiseline that started debark and embark in Hawaii.

We had a great time on POA this past May. The negative reviews are unjustified imho.

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I am planning a trip in March 2009 and I am reading a lot of negative reviews about POA. Is POA really that bad? I am from south Florida and planned to fly to Hawaii and take the NCL POA cruise.

 

NCL was the only cruiseline that started debark and embark in Hawaii.

It was so bad when we cruised in 2015 that we are doing it again in March 2018! ;p ;) :cool:

Seriously, it was not a bad ship--yes it is smaller than the mega ships being built these days--but IMHO it has the best Hawaiian itinerary (2 days on each island!!) and is the best way to get a taste of islands in 7 days. I believe it comes down to your expectations. We are easy going people and are not hard to please.

After taking our first cruise on the POA we got a feel for the islands and decided to go back in March 2018 and spend a week on Kauai and then do the cruise again.

I know you feel overwhelmed by all the information out there. I bought (or you can get from your local library) the Hawaii Revealed books for each island. They really helped me with my planning. I just concentrated on 1 island at a time until I had a day by day itinerary that I was happy with. Good luck and enjoy the process......you have 1 1/2 years to plan it ;)!

If you have NEVER been to Hawaii, then a land-based trip is what you want. You only get a "taste" of what Hawaii has to offer when you're cruising! 10 days - 2 weeks is not an unreasonable amount of time to spend in the Islands. Especially, when you have to fly to get to the cruise!

I thought doing the cruise would be better and get to see which island we would like to fly in

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I thought doing the cruise would be better and get to see which island we would like to fly in

That's a good way to get a taste of each island to decide which one you would want to explore more during a land tour. :)

While NCL isn't my preferred cruise line, I would sail on nearly any ship because none are the SS Rustbucket. ;)

The cruise fare is the primary reason we haven't sailed the POA which for a weeklong cruise costs nearly as much as a 15-day cruise roundtrip from the West Coast. NCL has a monopoly on cruises within Hawaii which makes them very popular resulting in higher prices...high demand + limited availability = higher prices.

If you have the time for a longer cruise & like us enjoy sea days, a cruise from the West Coast could be a better option for you. That would also result in a flight that's half the distance & probably a cheaper air fare to the WC.

Princess generally provides our best cruise experience so that's another reason it's better than NCL for us. We can drive to the Port of LA so a Princess roundtrip cruise is less expensive & a better cruise experience for us. Even though we live part of the year in Maui, the roundtrip LA cruises allow us to island-hop without any flights & hotels.

Hopefully Hurricane Irma won't greatly affect you but it continues to appear that South Florida will be severely affected. The just released forecast shows a slight shifting to the west...stay safe!

Thank you!! I will look into the cruises from LA

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Thank you!! I will look into the cruises from LA

And San Diego.

Correction March 2019

 

Thank you. I am researching what we should do now and boy it's overwhelming.

I am going to chose the free night package with NCL.. so I will have to pay for the specialty dinners separate.

Not sure you are aware that the dining packages, from 3 nights up to 7 nights, are available for purchase on your MyNCL account on the NCL website. Unless you are only doing 1 night, I hope you don't plan to dine specialty without a package. Only two specialties have a flat cover charge, the others are a la carte, so the charges can really rack up. Much cheaper to buy the meal package which works out to $20 something per meal depending on the number of nights you buy.

Thank you!! I will look into the cruises from LA

 

 

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And San Diego.

For me, the reason I ended up going with the POA was the amount of time I got on the islands--2 days on each island. IIRC, the other lines that originate from California and Vancouver for the 15 day cruises only get 1 day on each island and some of them don't stop at all the islands. So even though you might pay the same price (or maybe a little less--a lot less once you add in airfare) for the the longer cruises, I wanted to maximize my island time and only the POA can do that. So I guess it just really comes down to what you want to get out of it vs. cost.

Two days in the island give a lot of time to do things and not rush

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We loved our cruise on the POA. I agree you don't get the true feel of Hawaii on the ship but with overnights you can get more of that feel. I would do the cruise and then do a few nights at a resort. We rented a car in both Kauai and Maui through Priceline.

We've looked at the west coast departures but we are still working and 15 days is a lot of days when the majority is on the water. Maybe in the future:D

As for reading the cruise ship reviews!!!! I feel that the majority of the people doing these reviews are one post wonders. Something didn't meet there expectations and they are going to whine. I glance at them for pertinent info but that is it.

We did the POA cruise aug 17 -also spent a week in Oahau at Kailua, a week in Maui afterwards, then 4 days in Waikiki before coming home. We have not been on other cruises so can't compare that aspect. I'm happy with our cruise option as we had a lot of time off the boat on land to explore the islands we visited. Yes you can hire own car and do own exploring to reduce costs . As Australians we are lucky in that we have 4 weeks recreation leave each year so could do both. I'd still recommend cruise as it gives you a taste offallthe islands .

I also highly recommend the POA cruise - yes it is a little more expensive, but it's a great way to see the four main islands. We didn't know where to go or what to see when coming to Hawaii for the first time, so the cruise enabled us to experience the four main islands and decide which ones we would come back to again. As for the reviews about how bad the ship is - honestly, we didn't have a problem with either the ship or the crew. And we found the food to be really good as well, especially at Cagneys and La Cucina.

To each their own, and you make of it what you will, but we were really worried about all the negative reviews and by the end of it we couldn't understand why there are so many. We thought it was excellent. :)

Two days in the island give a lot of time to do things and not rush

 

 

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The cruise and POA were great.

The food OTOH was terrible.

Eat your meals on shore.

The cruise and POA were great.

 

The food OTOH was terrible.

 

Eat your meals on shore.

I wonder if you could share where you had your meals? MDRs only, any of the 5 Specialty restaurants, the buffet or 24 hour restaurant? We have sailed the POA twice, the last time in 2016, and would never classify the food as terrible, but food of course is a very subjective topic.

We had a bad meal once, our opinion only of course, at Moderno, the Brazillian Churiscarria, on this ship. Others on our cruise had nothing bad to say about it. The manager recognized our disappointment, and did not charge us for the meal. We had several other meals in the various specialty venues and I would consider those as good to excellent. Even the buffet offered some excellent choices. We are not fans of the MDR experience on any cruise line.

We have done the POA cruise before and will be doing it again in Feb.

Why? If you actually want to see a lot of Hawaii rather than the Pacific ocean, POA is your best bet (2 days on every major island (Maui, Kauai and the Big Island AND the chance to spend as much time on Oahu as you want before or after the cruise (we are spending 6 days on Oahu before the cruise). as opposed to one day and likely less than 4 islands. Some people are OK with less island time and more open ocean time. However we are not. BTW the food on POA is fine - certainly comparable to what you will get on any of the other main stream cruise lines. Really it's your choice - time in Hawaii or days at sea.

We were on the POA Sept 2- 9 2017. The ship is in fine shape, service excellent. We didn't experience any issues. Great selection at the buffet, Had the 3 specialty restaurnt package and all the restaurants had great food and service. Each Island is so unique . We would definitely do this cruise again.

We are sailing on the POA in April 2019 and this will be our second cruise on her. We have also done land vacations on the islands, but if your time is limited then the POA is the best way to see the islands - especially with the overnights in Maui and Kauai.

We are looking forward to sailing her again and never experienced any problems with our first cruise on her and are expecting to have a fantastic cruise this time as well. It is a different cruise experience from other itineraries, or ships, but it is a wonderful experience! We are spending a week on Oahu before boarding.